And then Haroun, encouraged by his favorite, Golnar, had come up with the idea of giving Zuleika to Amir Khan.

Zuleika smiled to herself as she sat by the sultan's bedside. The old man had played his part to the hilt, nodding and agreeing with his nephew that this would be the answer to their problems. But Haroun was not defeated yet. Zuleika sighed. She wished she were back in the khan's pavilion, naked and in her lover's arms. This second night, alone and together, would have been magic. But first things first! Her cousin must be dealt with as quickly as possible now that her father's health was in such a precarious state. She started as two hands fell upon her shoulders.

"Zuleika, my dear and beautiful cousin, how dutiful a daughter you are," Haroun's voice murmured softly. His hand caressed her neck lightly.

She arose. "Come into the outer room, Haroun," she whispered. "I would not wake my father, and he has just fallen asleep." She knew, however, that the old man was fully awake.

In the outer room he held her in his embrace and said, "A night in the khan's camp has sent you back to us with a new lushness, my cousin. Were you well fucked last night? Did you find his barbarian ways pleasing to you?"

Zuleika smiled boldly into her cousin's face. "I was very well used, Haroun, not just by the khan, but by his general as well. They took both Bahira and me to the great bed in my lord Amir's tent, and shared our favors between them. It was very exciting. I could never have imagined such a thing, but I will admit to enjoying it." She smiled again. "You would not have shared me, and allowed me such pleasure if I had been yours, cousin, would you?" she taunted him.

His too-handsome face darkened. "You could yet be mine, cousin," he replied. One arm about her waist, his other hand clamped about her breast, and he squeezed it.

Zuleika's tongue ran provocatively across her lips, and she pressed herself against him. "Do you dare to steal what is not yours, Haroun," she mocked him. "Golnar wants me gone lest I influence you instead of her. That is why she has chosen a mere child, a little girl who cannot be a true wife to you for several years, for your mate. If you take me, and keep me in your harem, cousin, Golnar and I will fight for supremacy. One of us will die. Even if it is I, Golnar will never forgive you, and she will find a wonderful way to revenge herself upon you. If I survive, I shall kill you myself, Haroun, and thus rule our land alone. But perhaps Golnar and I will conspire together against you, Haroun." She laughed. "If you think it is worth it, then take me now! Of course you will also have to deal with the khan, who has found my favors much to his satisfaction."

"I am well rid of you!" the prince snapped, backing away from her. "How long are you to remain with us?"

"They say it is a possibility my father is dying," Zuleika replied. "I will remain until either his health improves, or he leaves us for the afterlife."

"May he join your mother quickly, then," Haroun said nastily, "so we may be rid of both of you!"

"You are too kind," Zuleika murmured, bowing to him from the waist. "My serving woman, Rafa, will be traveling back and forth between the city and the khan's camp each day with a change of clothing for me. The khan would not let me bring anything with me, so fearful is he that I might not return," she said.

"Yet you claim to have enjoyed his lust," Haroun responded.

"Indeed I do," Zuleika said enthusiastically, "but I also find the khan's camp primitive. I am used to the elegance of our city."

"Enjoy it while you may," the prince said, and then without another word he turned on his heel and departed the sultan's apartments.

Zuleika was hard-pressed not to laugh aloud. She went to the door of the chamber, and threw the bolt that locked the door to her father's rooms. Then she went back into the sultan's bedroom, and closing that door behind her locked it as well. The draperies were already drawn across the tall arched windows. Fetching the old and dented basin, she set it on the table near her father's bed, and leaning over it said, "Kansbar, genie of the golden bowl, great protector of Dariyabar, come to me now, I implore you."

The bowl filled quickly with crystal water, and transformed itself into the beautiful vessel that it truly was. Kansbar's stern face appeared upon the surface of the water.

"Well, daughter of Dariyabar, what is it you want? I see that you have managed to retrieve me after that fool, Rafa, left me behind."

"We have much work to do, genie," the princess said.

"Explain!" he replied sharply.

Chapter Four

"My father is dying, Kansbar. Can you restore his health?" Zuleika asked the genie.

"If it is his time, my princess, then it is his time," the genie responded sanguinely.

"Would you have Haroun rule Dariyabar, Kansbar? You may speak with my father. He would have Amir Khan succeed him. But to make that happen we need more time. If my father dies this night, or in the next few nights to come, then Haroun will seize power here. Sultan Ibrahim must make his wishes publicly known. To do that he must be restored to his previously good health."

The waters in the golden bowl grew dark for a moment, and then light again as the genie considered the problem. "I can give your father a moon's span, but no more, my princess. It is simply not in my power. If I do, I tamper with the will of the Gods, but I have not asked them for a favor in eons. They will grant me this, I know, for Dariyabar's sake. I shall also make both you and your father impervious to poisons of any kind, for Golnar is an impatient and vengeful woman. She already sees herself ruling Dariyabar through Haroun, but she will not allow that buffoon to live long, I suspect, before she kills him and takes the power for herself through the son she will seek to give your cousin. Haroun's heir may certainly come from her wicked womb as long as his sultana is of respectable lineage."

"Golnar tells me he will seek the vizier's youngest daughter, Tahirah, who is still a child," Zuleika said.

"Ahhh," Kansbar said, "then I am right. Golnar wants to give your cousin his heir. Pray she is not already with child, or if she is that the child is a female."

"What are we to do with Haroun?" Zuleika asked. "Should we not kill him so he may not prove a problem for us?"

"Fierce! Fierce!" the genie murmured. "You should have been your father's son! Still, you should not have his blood on your conscience. Haroun is a fool, my princess, but I believe we might allow him his life. However, I think he should live it in another place," he chuckled. "There is a land called Kava where women rule, and men are their slaves. His pretty face and randy cock would be much appreciated by the women of Kava. Of course he will, I expect, need to be retrained to know his place in their unique society," the genie said with a wicked and knowing smile. "I can arrange to send him there, my princess."

"But what if he should escape Kava, and attempt to return to Dariyabar?" she asked him.

"Kava is almost two years of travel from Dariyabar, my princess, but more important, the women of Kava have learned how to control time. For each year Haroun is in Kava, twenty-five of our years will have passed. If that does not reassure you, let me tell you that no man has ever escaped from Kava. Only a fool would want to, and while your cousin is indeed a fool, he will adjust. The women of Kava are very beautiful. They know pleasure well. After the shock has worn off, Haroun will find himself a mistress who will cherish him, and cosset him. He will live in luxury, his every need met as long as he pleases his mistress. He will quickly learn that those men who are recalcitrant find themselves in either the gem mines, or the fields behind a plow. Haroun would not enjoy that. But if the impossible happened and he did escape and find his way back to Dariyabar, he would be a very old man himself, for once he has entered Kava he remains young. But if he leaves, he will return to what he is, for he was not born of Kava. It is the perfect solution, and you will not have his blood on your hands."

"What of Golnar?" Zuleika queried.

"That is for Amir Khan to decide, my princess."

"Very well," Zuleika said. "But my father?"

"Will awaken in the morning healthy and well. He will be stronger in body and mind than he has ever been," Kansbar promised. "But in one month he will go to his bed, and not awaken again in this world. He has but thirty days in which to make his will known to the people of Dariyabar. He must bring Amir Khan into the city tomorrow, and the khan must marry you before all the people. This binds your father's blood to that of Amir Khan, and to the previous sultans of Dariyabar. Amir Khan will only co-rule with you, my princess. It is your first son who will inherit after his father, and his maternal grandfather."

"And where is Haroun in all of this?" she demanded.

"Your cousin even now is awakening to find himself in Kava," the genie chuckled, well pleased with himself. "He is among a group of slaves brought in from a nearby city to restock the stud pool."

Zuleika giggled. She couldn't help herself. "He will be so confused," she said. "He may even think himself mad." She sounded rather pleased by the thought, remembering how he had squeezed her breast and threatened her just a short while ago.

"He will survive after the shock has worn off," Kansbar said. "I will check on him now and again, but once he learns the lay of that particular land, and that there is no escape, he will adjust quite nicely, I am thinking. Perhaps I shall see he is given a stern mistress to start. One who will whip his bottom to train him to obedience."